TAR tied 60 Minutes for most viewers of the night of the network shows but 60 Minutes had a slightly higher share of the viewers. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's down 14% from the TAR 20 premier last February and about the same as the TAR 21 premier ratings last fall.

Zap2it's take on the ratings:

The most-watched show on TV Sunday night probably wasn't on any of the broadcast networks. Nothing on ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC broke 10 million viewers, so there's a good chance "The Walking Dead" beat everything else on TV. The AMC series and the NBA All-Star Game on TNT probably will also have the top adults 18-49 marks of the night.

The premiere of the 22nd "Amazing Race" scored the best network numbers of the night for CBS, with ratings about even with its fall debut. "Once Upon a Time" and "Revenge" were up a little from last week for ABC, but they were still on the low side of their season averages. "The Good Wife" and "The Mentalist" were low for CBS as well.

deadline.com's take on the ratings (not sure why their ratings are so much lower):

The new season of The Amazing Race (2.4/6) started off at LA’s Griffith Observatory however the series itself did not get off on its best footing. Down 14% from last year’s February 19, 2012 Spring premiere, Sunday’s season 22 debut was the lowest debut ever for the long running CBS series. Not that it was that much of a slide. The September 30, 2012 season 21 premiere of the global competition series garnered a 2.5/6 matching a previous Race series low debut. With CBS’ primetime Sunday delayed 5 minutes in the Eastern and Central times zones due to an overrun from PGA Tour Golf, last night’s ratings could see a greater than usual adjustment in final numbers.

As The Amazing Race hit a low, ABC’s Once Upon A Time and Revenge (1.8/4) rose from one last night. Without facing off against the Grammys, the fantasy drama was bopped up 5% and the late night soap jumped 29% from last week’s series low for both shows. CBS’s dramas however did drop on Sunday. Back after three weeks, The Good Wife (1.4/3) was down 7% – hitting a series low for the show. The Mentalist (1.5/4) was also down, falling 21% from its last original on January 27.. Both network news magazine shows also took a hit last night. Airing just after 7 PM, CBS’ 60 Minutes (1.3/4) was down 28% from its February 10 show while Dateline NBC was down 33% from its last Sunday original back on January 6. Otherwise NBC showed back-to-back repeats of Betty White’s Off Their Rockers at 8 PM (0.9/2) and 8:30 PM (1.0/2) and a Saturday Night Live In The 90s: Pop Culture Nation (1.4/3) special. Starting the night with America’s Funniest Home Videos (1.5/4), which was down 17% from last week, ABC ended Sunday with a repeat of its new Anthony Edwards conspiracy drama Zero Hour (0.9/2)

One good thing to remember is that we beat Survivor for the premier episodes. Survivor had 8.9 million vewers and a 5.5/9 ratings share last Wednesday.

I was out all afternoon with Lieb (she had her semi-annual vet appointment) and we also had to deal with an unexpected snowfall that could have led to an icy coat on the roads coming back home.

The main thing to keep in mind, as we've mentioned in recent seasons, is that an increasing percentage of the available audience is recording shows to view later (a.k.a. time shifting) which is not included in the overnights; and the weekly numbers only include same day time shifted viewing (those are released on Tuesdays.)

The real numbers is the Live plus seven days number, which we're lucky to hear about at all although it has usually been once or twice a season. The advertisers use the live plus three day numbers to set advertising rates, which we often don't information on, either.

The most recent estimates I saw from Nielsen is that time shifting is now used by one half of all households.

So it's hard to figure out what value the numbers have these days, but this is all we have to work with.

The main thing to keep in mind, as we've mentioned in recent seasons, is that an increasing percentage of the available audience is recording shows to view later (a.k.a. time shifting) which is not included in the overnights; and the weekly numbers only include same day time shifted viewing (those are released on Tuesdays.)

The real numbers is the Live plus seven days number, which we're lucky to hear about at all although it has usually been once or twice a season. The advertisers use the live plus three day numbers to set advertising rates, which we often don't information on, either.

The most recent estimates I saw from Nielsen is that time shifting is now used by one half of all households.

So it's hard to figure out what value the numbers have these days, but this is all we have to work with.

I have a source who gets the numbers each week. I was just to busy with real life to post any of them last season.

And a correct it isn't the Live plus 3 that sets ad rates. It's the Commercial plus 3 that sets ad rates. I have only ever seen this data for TAR once, and only a handful of times for any other show. Generally the C# rating is going to be close to the results that are reported as Live Same day. Sometimes a little lower, sometimes a tiny bit higher.

The reason is that the Live Same day numbers include a substantial number of people who use DVR to watch TAR that same night. But only about 20% of those viewers count as thats the typical average who don't skip commercials. Even with 3 extra days, of DVR viewing, due to the large number who skip commercials its usually just enough to push the data to equal the live Same day numbers.

Ad buyers don't give a crap about the Live version of any numbers (the exception is those ads that are built within a show, product placement, like the beautiful Fords, that Damned Gnome from Travelocity and various airlines).

TAR also generally doesn't gain much in viewers even for the program after the first day. Programs that are weekly competitions (survivor, TAR, American Idol, ect) generally have smaller percentage growth then scripted programming, as their does seem to be a rush to get the viewing in as fast as possible.

But overall even with DVR viewing, network tv is still losing viewers each and every year on average. So you can't just compare the results of one week to the previous year. You need to compare how that show is doing in relationship to that network that year. For example CBS is down big time this year (once you remove the Super bowl), TAR could actually have done much lower numbers and still be a solid, solid performer for CBS.

I'm very impressed that TAR finished 13th for the week. It's been quite a while since it finished that high. I'm thinking that that people wanted to see a tropical island during the middle of winter. Also, the promise of 3 people quitting probably got others to watch.

While the numbers look dismal, the Oscars killed everybody last night. I'll take away the good news that 60 Minutes and TAR were the only shows with over 5 million viewers last night and we held on to 2/3 of last week's audience. Hopefully some of the ones watching the Oscars recorded TAR for later viewing (like I did). Still, I doubt if TAR will be in the top 30 shows this week, since it's situation normal for shows on the other 6 days of the week.

Here's last year's numbers for comparison (as provided by theschnauzers in the TAR 20 ratings thread):

The 2.2/5 is the 18-49 rating/share, and the 7.710 is the total audience in 000s. And of course these numbers are only for the live plus same day audience, and does not include any time shifted viewing after Sunday night. (Which is more likely this week since the Oscars do run past prime-time.)

So we were down about a million viewers from last year, but the Oscars Red Carpet show was up 7 million viewers. Also, as we've seen the viewer trend overall is downward, so that accounts for some of the losses. So, overall, I'd say it was a one night ratings dip due to being against the Oscars and next week should be much better. I also expect the ratings will get adjusted upward in the fibal ratings for last night.

As it turns out, on the east coast feed, if you switched to the Oscars once TAR was over, you only missed one award (Best Supporting Actor); most of the time before that was for the Red Carpet pre-show, and Seth MacFarland's opening. (And from what I've read, I really did not miss much.)

The thing is that the Oscars run so long (4 hours) that the TAR viewership on the west coast is also affected, and they're getting the final major awards during the time TAR is airing there. So that may have had a larger impact relatively since TAR is rarely affected on the west coast.

Broadcast viewership and cable viewership is always interesting, because shows like TAR got hurt by the Oscars, while "The Walking Dead" grew its 18-49 audience by 0.1 from last week and was completely unaffected by the Oscars:

Broadcast viewership and cable viewership is always interesting, because shows like TAR got hurt by the Oscars, while "The Walking Dead" grew its 18-49 audience by 0.1 from last week and was completely unaffected by the Oscars:

There were about 13 million viewers watching a miniseries on History produced by Mark Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey, The Bible, and there was another 10+ million watching The Walking Dead on another cable channel at the same time.

That better explains what is going on; and Les Moonves predicted in a speech yesterday that advertisers would be moving to the same day plus seven within a year.

"The Good Wife" Posts Gains in Viewers and Demos From Last Original Episode and Tops the First Hour of ABC's Heavily Promoted Premiere of "Red Widow"

"The Mentalist" Places First in Viewers, Also Ahead of "Red Widow"

CBS Places First on Sunday in Viewers, Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54

THE AMAZING RACE posted significant week-to-week growth in viewers and key demographics, topping the night's broadcast competition in adults 18-49, according to Nielsen preliminary live plus same day ratings for March 3.

THE GOOD WIFE was first in households (5.9/09), viewers (8.94m) and adults 25-54 (2.3/05), and tied for second in adults 18-49 (1.6/04, with NBC). Compared to the last first-run episode on Feb. 17, 2013, THE GOOD WIFE was up +7% in households (from 5.5/08), +15% in adults 25-54 (from 2.0/04), +23% in adults 18-49 (from 1.3/03) and added +590,000 viewers (from 8.35m, +7%). THE GOOD WIFE topped the first hour of ABC's heavily promoted premiere of "Red Widow" in all key measures.

At 10:00 PM, THE MENTALIST was first in households (6.0/10) and viewers (9.10m), and was second in both adults 25-54 (2.2/05) and adults 18-49 (1.5/04). THE MENTALIST also finished ahead of "Red Widow" in viewers and key demos.

For the night, CBS was first in households (6.2/10), viewers (9.77m) and adults 25-54 (2.6/06), and tied for first in adults 18-49 (1.8/05, with FOX).

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via CBS

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